hopenfox

Has the grass been fertilized or treated with anything? Are there any ants in it? Both of these can cause irritation. My Koolie, Hope is allergic to pollinating/seeding grass and needs to avoid walking through or lying in it during that time, but is fine with grass at other times. I hear artificial grass works quite well in small doggy areas...

I used to feed it mixed with fresh raw mince when I first moved from processed food to a more natural raw diet, but quickly discovered the ideal dog's diet needed plenty of large chunks of raw meat and meaty bones for the mental, physical and psychological benefits. Now I feed prey model, but when one of my dogs (Hope) went through surgery on her oesophagus, and could only eat soft, mushy food for several months, I went back to VAN for her. I don't like feeding grain based food so I was glad to get back off it onto large meat/bone chunks.

A Kong is a strong rubber toy with a hole in the middle you can fill with food - It's fun and interesting for the dog to empty. So a stuffed Kong is a Kong with the food stuffed in, making it harder to get out!

My dogs all eat a prey model diet. 14 year old Nicky (Cavalier) is fed three times a day, Hope (Koolie) and Fox (Kelpie) are fed one main meal and a small snack. Fox's average weekly diet; Day one; am - stuffed Kong (raw/maybe frozen mince or meat)...pm - chicken frame. Day two; am - raw duck/chook egg in shell...pm - meaty lamb neck. Day three; am - stuffed Kong...pm - raw whole fish or large fish head. Day four; am - stuffed Kong...pm - very meaty roast beef or pork. Day five; am - raw egg in shell...pm - turkey drummette & piece of liver. Day six; am - nothing...pm - meaty lamb shank & piece of kidney. Day seven; am - stuffed Kong...pm - half a rabbit. I try and feed as much variety as I can with quail, pheasant, guinea fowl, duck, goose, emu, kangaroo, buffalo, deer, goat, etc. added when I can find a bargain. I get most of meat at marked down 'close to use-by' at supermarkets, some from butchers, and some like rabbits, kangaroo tails and meat chunks at pet food supply places. My ferrets are also fed a prey diet and for them I collect freshly killed birds and animals (freeze for several weeks to kill any parasites) and they love these. I regularly get baby birds thrown from their nest, and the occasional fresh kill made (before I can stop them) by my or friends dogs and cats. I'm so glad to see you giving the prey diet a go and also that there are other's here who feed prey model! I can't believe there are still so many out there who think dogs are omnivores when they are scientifically, and without any doubt, known to be carnivores! I've attached a few photos of my dogs enjoying their meals...

Dogs droppings are green after eating charcoal biscuits...

My Cavalier, Nicky suffered terribly from arthritis in his neck, spine and legs at the age of eight. After a diet change to 100% raw and Apple Cider Vinegar added to his food, Nicky was zooming around like a puppy again a week later. He is now 14 years old and still as good as ever! Except for a little stiffness, you'd never even know he had arthritis!

Dog's can develop allergies to anything at any time, so don't rule out an ingredient in the RC! Grains are a common food allergen in dogs... And yes, it could be a contact allergy like grass, a garden plant, carpet, etc. On an aside - I was allergic to the washing powder my mum used, and a change to a natural powder from a health food store solved the problem.

My dogs are fed a raw diet, and unfortunately due to an accident, my Koolie, Hope is no longer allowed to eat bones. I've been brushing her teeth regularly with a toothbrush, but recently started to feed her the occasional lump of frozen mince as a bone substitute, and am pleased with the improvements in the cleanness of her teeth. I was wondering if it would hurt to feed all her main meals in frozen lumps? Would this be likely to wear down her teeth too much? Or create a digestive problem with eating all that cold stuff? Looking forward to any thoughts... -hopenfox

This is the one I took with the macro setting;

Freckles - How did you go about blurring the background by editing? (Step-by-step instructions would be great!) Purple Julie - It's not the same! I actually tried taking a macro photo of Fox's head in the hope the background would blur. It did a bit, but not enough...

How disappointing Purple Julie! I was so hoping there would be a way (using the different focus options maybe) for me to blur the backgrounds using my camera (it's a Ricoh Caplio R30). Hopefully one day I can afford a digital SLR... Thanks for that info persephone, I'm sure it will come in handy for me one day (and for others here). Really nice photos *Bella* - that's exactly what I would like mine to look like.

I love the way professional photos have blurry backgrounds - like this one taken of Fox; My macro setting does it nicely for photos of little things, but how do I get the same effect in photos of my dogs?

It'll be too late to do anything, but the Bendigo Show will be having a dog high jump comp tomorrow...

Thanks for your concern everyone! Hope is home now (picked her up on Sunday) and I'm so glad to have her back! Her care sheet tells me she needs to be fed AD (prescription) can food, blended finely with water, for two weeks, then I can start introducing my own soft food, which I think I'll start with finely blended minced chicken frames. If she keeps that down well, she can have her G-tube (stomach tube) removed. 3 months after her surgery, she can be started on dry food, and apparently I can never again feed her bones of any kind, ever! Not even the large marrow bones, just in case she happens to chip off a piece...so that's quite disappointing. But of course I wouldn't want to risk having to put her through another operation like that, so I'll just have to make do with teeth cleaning and the occasional dentabone. I'll definitely be looking for a butcher that will be happy to mince some of the other kinds of bones too. I would still like her to enjoy a variety of different types of meat/bones. westielover - thanks for those suggestions and the info on the bone meal... :D Here are a few photos of Hope taken when she got home on Sunday.

Thanks poodlefan, I wonder if in Summer I could feed her frozen lumps of mince to give her something hard to chew on?

Sorry, long post! I feed all my dogs on BARF. Hope, my Koolie, has always inhaled her food, and that includes her edible bones. She always broke off and swallowed big pieces and with my fingers always crossed, she's never had a problem...up until now. Last Saturday afternoon, after scoffing a lamb neck bone, she became very quiet and was in obvious pain, very restless and walking with her tummy tucked up and whining with each short, sharp breath...I just knew she had a bone stuck somewhere. Off to the Vet, where, after feeling her stomach, they ignored what I thought, and gave her several injections for the pain and also antibiotics since she had a fever. They thought she probably just had a stomach ache. They sent us home with antibiotic and pain relief tablets and a suggestion to feed bland food only for a while and to keep her quite. The next day, she was vomiting up every small meal instantly, and appeared to be still in horrible pain. Took her back to the Vet, where she still had a temperature. They kept her there while they re-hydrated her on a drip, and took some blood to send away for tests...they thought it might be Pancreatitus. I got a phone call hours later to say the blood was fine and just showed dehydration and a slightly elevated white blood cell count. Hope was really bright and comfortable, so they were going to do the X-Rays later. I got a phone call at about 8:30 to say I'd better come quick, Hope's X-Rays showed she had a large bone wedged in her esophagus between her heart and stomach, and she'd also fainted into unconsciousness as she was leaving the X-Ray room, so the bone was probably pressing on her heart. My sister drove me to the Vet (I was too upset to drive) straight away, where my Vet said Hope needed emergency surgery to remove the bone, and she needed to be taken to a specialist...So (probably feeling guilty about not doing the X-Rays earlier or believing my sure knowledge it was a bone stuck when I was there on my first visit) my Vet offered to drive Hope and I there (nearly 2 hours away) right then. So after signing papers, paying a very large deposit, and saying goodbye, we left Hope there and headed back. When I got home I rang to see how the endoscopy went, but as I thought, they were unable to pull or push the bone out, and open heart type surgery to remove the bone would begin first thing in the morning. They'd ring and let me know how it went. So anyway, it apparently went well, they got the bone out, removed a damaged part of her esophagus and sewed her back together with a chest drain and a feeding tube connected to her stomach. Yesterday she was fed her first bit of food through the tube (slurry) and kept it down, so they're hopeful she can start lapping the slurry tomorrow. Her chest drain will probably be removed tomorrow too, and if all goes well I can go pick her up on Sunday. Anyway, since Hope is allergic to processed food, and has alway thrived on the BARF diet, but can obviously not be fed bones for a very long time or ever again, does anyone have ideas on how I can still feed her on a natural raw diet without bones? There must be dogs out there with the same problem or with no teeth that are still fed raw food? I've thought of the minced chicken frames Lenards sell...and maybe just add calcium powder/bone meal to beef, lamb and kangaroo mince? How do I keep her teeth clean without bones or biscuits? Due to the inevitable scarring that will occur around the damaged area of her esophagus, she won't be allowed to swallow anything chunky that could get caught there again... Also, has anyone had a similar experience with their dog? Does it affect their agility at all? Will I need to give up or slow down her fetching games and agility trials? Thanks in anticipation for your thoughts or suggestions...

I have a dog with pretty bad eye to mouth coordination, and found he finds it easier to catch if I throw the food (gently) up in the air above his head. By the time it falls within reach, he's worked out when to open his mouth!

Your dog needs to be measured by two different Agility judges, a form is filled out (I think most/all judges have them) and signed, and you should get the card in the mail in about a week...I believe there are 2 judges that attend the Ballarat Dog Obedience Club...If you can contact them and get to Ballarat with your dog, you may have a chance of getting the hight card in time. Also when the cards first came in, I know you were allowed to arrive at a trial, get two judges to measure and sign, and that was enough to allow you to trial, but I'm not sure if that is still allowed. Few people are ever asked to show their cards at trials...(just if your dog looks way too big or small for the height group he's entered in).

leopuppy04 - That's a great idea, and something I and fellow triallers have always wanted in our club, however we just don't have enough instructors as it is, so would be unable to hold more classes than we do right now. Maybe once the new way of training comes in, people will discover how fun it is and want to go further...Maybe become instructors, and then we can add trialling based classes. But for now, I've just added the beginning of trial exercises in Class 3 and more advanced in Class 4. Rather than using 'Heel' in the early classes I think I'll call it 'Close'...Just to help preserve the 'life' in the Heeling exercise for future triallers... I'm very aware of the laziness of a lot of members...it's like talking to a brick wall sometimes...they're very frustrating! At least at the moment I'm instructing the Puppy classes. Very refreshing with almost 100% doing their homework and coming back each week full of enthusiasm! Hopefully our new methods will encourage the same feeling in our other classes...

My Obedience Club is at long last at the point of changing from old military style, correction based trial training to motivational reward based training aimed at the average pet owner...(At last! :p ) So I've sort of taken it upon myself to make up a whole new class structure (since no-one else expressed interest) to put to the committee and instructors. On average about 3% of our club's members ever end up trialling. (This percentage should improve with the new training method...currently the club churns out 'robot dogs' with 'robot handlers' who entirely retrain their dogs if they wanted to trial) So my question is, how important is teaching the average pet owner to teach their dog to heel in the early classes? In my opinion, owner's basically want their dogs to know how to; #sit #lie down (drop) #stay #wait #come #leave and #walk nicely on a lead My club has 7 classes; Baby Puppies, Older Puppies, Beginner's, and Classes One, Two, Three and Four. I thought, unless member's ask to be taught earlier, that I would introduce (trial type) heeling (e.g. happy, fun, focused heeling) at class three, with the knowledge that the average dog owners have learnt all they want by Class Two and depart, leaving the more dedicated trainers who may be interested in trialling. Looking forward to reading your opinions!

Oh no! So it's not that easy? I may have to take you up on that offer then...

This sounds interesting! How far is Cressy from the center of Ballarat? Looks on a map about an hour? Which roads would be best to take? I'd be coming from Bendigo direction...

Their quack is quite loud, but they do only quack if they're hungry, scared, excited or lonely... My ducks also quack quietly and steadily every morning as they wait to be let out of their shed, then run out with short happy quacks. They are then quiet until their body clock tells them it's nearly time for me to come let them out of their pen for their 'free range' time in the afternoon, then they'll run/fly out yelling loudly in excitement. Warning Quacks are quite loud and the ducks often tend to get carried away and feed off each other's panic, so sometimes they'll just go on and on until I come out and scare off the cat or snake or whatever, then they'll go quiet again. Oh, and they do talk a bit while they're being worked...

hmm interesting. of course i have no real idea not seeing whats shes doing but it could be sheep, they're a bit more intimidating,a nd it could be that youre asking her to do it yuor way, rather than letting her have free rein...im not sure how you introduce her to the sheep tho. but possum raelly resisted anyone trying to tell her how to work for quite a long time and we still have words about it now. if you are trying to impose yourself (which you should, cos you want her to do what you tell) she may be like, hmmm i dont think so! but like i said, couldnt tell you for sure.... (shes veeeeery cute by the way) I think she's pretty cute too! I think it may be the sheep. She doesn't seem to see them as herdable ..do you think if she had been introduced to sheep before poultry she would have been okay? She started herding the chooks when I brought her home at four months old and then when I bought ducks (just for her!) she happily moved onto them. She didn't see sheep till she was nearly five... But I'm fairly sure if I was able to have my own sheep and made a point of moving them around every day, Hope would start joining in pretty quick. Wish I could afford some land! From what I've read here, Hope works in a typical Koolie way. She's very full on, alway moving and always trying to keep the stock moving. She's very fast and works too close, but she's also quite steady and is able to keep her ducks together and moving in the right direction. Though sometimes she does run them off their feet. But she's never come close to nipping any of them. I think even Koolies can learn some restraint! Also even though she works like this when close to the ducks, she does have a marvelous cast and will run the fenceline of the neighbour's 5 acre paddock until right opposite me and about 20 metres behind the ducks. Then she'll start zig-zagging all the way to the ducks to make sure she's got them all before bringing them to me. I would sooo love to be able to work her in trials. Oh, I just remembered, she also has no interest in herding my friend's ducks or chooks, so that's why I got the impression she was only interested in working her own stock. Congratulations, jesomil on all those winnings! I would have so loved to go to have a look and maybe enter Fox in something... Oh, and I've added a pic of Hope looking like she may be considering sheep as herdable creatures, just not sure yet. And also of her trying to herd the very uncooperative pet bantams when she was young...

Sigh... I love this thread! Can't wait for more photos (especially of the Koolies!) Here are some of Hope...She works only at home with 'her' ducks or chooks. And she pretends she has no idea what herding is when I try to help us both learn more at workshops...Very frustrating! Has anyone else had or heard of a dog that did this? It's like she knows 'her' birds need to be moved here or taken over there, but looks at me as if I can't be serious when I ask her to move (someone else's) sheep in a pointless circle!